2013 Revolution schedule unveiled

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Major League Soccer today unveiled its 2013 regular-season schedule, a slate that sees each of the 19 teams play 34 games, beginning March 2 and ending on October 27. The league’s clubs will play regionally-focused schedules, with each club playing more intra-conference games.

The Revolution, following a bye in Week 1, will open the 2013 slate at Chicago on March 9, in a game that will be televised nationally by NBC Sports Network. Following a road match at East Coast rival Philadelphia on March 16, the Revs will open their 17-game home slate at Gillette Stadium against Sporting Kansas City – a change of opponent from a previous announcement – on March 23.

Five of the team’s first eight matches will be played away from home, with the team drawing a pair of bye weeks in the first six weeks of the year (Week 1, Week 6). Additionally, between April 27 and June 8, six of the team’s eight games will be played at Gillette Stadium.

Continuing the scheduling format used first in the 2012 season, the Revolution will play seven Eastern Conference teams three times each this season: Chicago, Columbus, D.C., Houston, New York, Philadelphia and Toronto. The Revs will face D.C., Philadelphia and Toronto twice at home and once on the road, while the club will travel twice to Chicago, Columbus, Houston and New York with one return meeting against each in Foxborough. New England will play two-game series with Kansas City and Montreal. Eastern Conference opponents comprise 25 games of the 34-game schedule.

The remaining nine games will be played against Western Conference opponents as the Revs will face each Western team only one time apiece again in 2013. The Revolution will host Dallas, LA, Real Salt Lake and San Jose at Gillette Stadium, and will travel to Chivas USA, Colorado, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver.

Among the other schedule highlights, the Revs will host New York on May 11; MLS Cup champion LA Galaxy on June 2; 2012 Supporters’ Shield winner San Jose on July 6; Chicago on August 17; and D.C. on September 21. The MLS Cup runner-up, Houston, makes two trips to Foxborough: July 13 and September 28. The Revs will also close the season with a home-and-away series with Columbus, meeting at Gillette Stadium in the home finale on October 19, before traveling to the Buckeye State in the final day of the season on October 27.

Two of the team’s matches will be nationally-televised on the NBC Sports Network: the season opener at Chicago on March 9, and the June 2 match at Gillette Stadium against the LA Galaxy. The team’s other 32 matches will be broadcast regionally by Comcast SportsNet New England.

All of the Revolution’s matches against its I-95 corridor rivals – New York, Philadelphia and D.C. – are scheduled for weekends, including all four road contests on the road. The team’s three-game series against the New York Red Bulls opens in Harrison, N.J., on April 20, with the Gillette Stadium date on May 11, and the return to Red Bull Arena on October 5.

The Revolution opens training camp on January 17, and will make two training trips to Arizona during the five-and-a-half week preseason camp. The team will depart on Jan. 21 for Casa Grande, Ariz., for a 10-day trip, before returning to the Copper State on Feb. 9 for a two-week stay in Tucson, during which it will face New York, Real Salt Lake and Seattle Sounders FC in the FC Tucson Desert Diamond Cup.